This blog will post detailed news items about GLBT issues. Some of the issues include the "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and gay marriage. Please note that my main website is DOASKDOTELL.COM (link on my Profile).

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About Me

Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!

Monday, October 21, 2013

AIDS-HIV "denial" has never helped gay men politically, or medically

The appeal of “AIDS denialism” or specifically “HIV denial”
doesn’t go away completely, as evidenced from a court case I discuss on my main
blog Aug. 16, 2013.

In the mid 1980s, much of the male gay community was
reluctant to accept the science that seemed to show that a virus then called
HTLV-III causes AIDS.

There had been some subtle warnings that a severe health
crisis was coming, even during my last year living in New York, 1978. Rumors of clusters of contagious cancer had
spread even then (and even out in the general population, as with Hodgkin’s
Disease). I moved to Dallas in early
1979. I first heard about Kaposi’s Sarcoma in a gay magazine called “This Week
in Texas” on the day in February 1982 that I went to see “Making Love”. It wasn’t until early 1983 that the
epidemiology of AIDS really attracted attention, because the number of official
cases was doubling so quickly, every six months. An epidemic starting from almost one case and
spreading geometrically would have to yield a novel explanation. A novel virus was the most probable.

HTLV-3 was formally identified in the spring of 1984, and a
test was available in 1985. The gay
community often argued “don’t take the test” out of very real political
fears. But it’s also arguable that the
community was better off politically once a virus was identified and could be
understood.

There were lots of conspiracy theories. The New York Native, published by Charles
Ortleb, indulged some of them, with reports about experiments at Plum Island,
and the idea that ASFV, African Swine Fever Virus, could be the cause. This was a dangerous idea, because ASFV is an
arbovirus, spread by mosquitoes. There
were other theories, like that a bizarre fungus from Scandanavia was the cause,
or that even some strange primitive bacteria (reportedly found in KS lesions)
caused it. With a provocative article in a 1983 Discover issue, there were even ideas that prions ("infectious" proteins that destroy brain tissue by corrupting the surface geometry of certain proteins, in a domino fashion) could be responsible for AIDS (they do cause neurological disease).

Before HTLV-3, to be renamed HIV, was identified and accepted,
the religious right in Texas (and a group called “Dallas Doctors Against AIDS)
proposed, in early 1983, a state law increasing the penalty for sodomy and imposing
a military-style ban on gays in most occupations. The right wing (supported by Paul Cameron and
Gene Antonio) proposed that within the gay male community a deadly “chain
letter” had formed which amplified the virus.
Were it to turn out to be spread by insects later (which it fortunately
was not), it could then spread to the general population. This was the “compelling state interest” that
would have justified Sodomy laws from a “public health” viewpoint. (The
right wing also claimed that mutation alone could cause this, but probably not
without its being an equally heterosexual disease in short order, and probably
becoming less lethal.) In fact, in the
early 80’s, some writers speculated that other viruses would get amplified by
the male gay community. This has not
happened, because transmission patterns of viruses are more different than we
realize, and also because the behavior in the community did get more cautious -- yes, most of the Baths were closed, but condoms became much more popular.. But before HIV, Hepatitis B had
been more common among MSM. It’s a lot less clear, though, with other bloodborn
viruses, that there has been any particular affinity for the male gay
community. Some viruses seem spread by
needles but not as easily by sex. In
1984, I actually tried to correspond with DDAA, to the horror of the Dallas Gay
Alliance (especially its president then Bill Nelson). DDAA wrote back a letter with graphic
arguments about the mechanics of both male sexual practices and ordinary
heterosexual intercourse, trying to justify its draconian position. Fortunately that bill died in committee in
the late spring of 1983, but only after heavy lobbying by more moderate
elements and by the medical community. The
story of HR 2138 is now largely forgotten Texas history – with implications for
the entire community.

In 1988, I was evaluated to be a subject for the GP160
vaccine. I was accepted but decided not
to participate because of the time required from work.

Today, blood donation remains an issue. I think the case of allowing MSM who test
negative by all indicators and who have refrained from sex for some period
(like 180 days) to donate blood or organs (post mortem) again is a strong one. Other countries are starting to lift the ban
on blood donations in certain circumstances.

Another argument supporting HTLV-3 as a cause was that a
similar virus, HTLV-1, had already been found (in 1982) to cause a T-cell leukemia.

In general, trying to deny HIV as a cause does not help gay
men. That is not to say that some prosecutions
for transmission may be wrong or that some pharmaceutical companies may not
have behaved unethically at times.

Public health can always be affected unexpectedly by
activity in certain communities.
Although avian influenza (“bird flu”) is very different from retroviral
disease and much more contagious, it likewise has a public health lesson. Here the problem is that agricultural
practice in the developing world, where people live near the poultry they
raise, seems to contribute to amplification and (after mutation) subsequent global risk.
Again, most viruses, if the mutate and spread to more people, become less
lethal.

Today, I don't hear about new cases of AIDS often, but there are reports that it is returning in some cities in younger gay men. Fortunately, the protease inhibitors do work for maany, if not most, patients.

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